Phoenix Wright

Phoenix "Nick" Wright (known as Ryūichi Naruhodō in the Japanese versions) is a main character in the Ace Attorney series of mystery adventure visual novel games. A famous defense attorney, Phoenix is the main protagonist in the firstthreegames, appeared as a supporting playable character in the fourth, appeared as the main protagonist again in the fifth game and then as one of the protagonists in the sixth game.

Contents

In his childhood, he made friends with Larry Butz and Miles Edgeworth. Wright first decided to become a defense attorney in his school days when he was falsely accused of stealing his classmate Miles Edgeworth's lunch money, and the class held a mock trial. In that moment when he felt alone, he decided that he wanted to become a defense attorney so that he could help people like himself who at that time had nobody to defend or believe them.

At the start of the series, he has recently acquired his attorney badge. While studying to become a defense lawyer, he was defended by Mia Fey and subsequently worked at her Fey and Co. Law Office. Wright took over the office and renamed it the Wright and Co. Law Office, with Mia's younger sister Maya Fey as his assistant, after Mia was murdered in the second case in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

The fourth Ace Attorney game, Apollo Justice, is set seven years after a case where Wright is incriminated for accidentally falsifying evidence due to a miscommunication and loses his defense attorney's badge. In the game he is a (not so good) piano player and a undefeated poker player.

Wright is known in the courtroom for wildly guessing at the real truth and the ability to "turnabout" the court to his favor. He also has an adopted daughter in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Trucy Wright, who is a professional magician. He converted the Wright & Co. Law Offices into the Wright Talent Agency. Shortly after Apollo Justice joins his firm in the fourth Ace Attorney game, he changes it again, this time to the Wright "Anything" Office.

Phoenix Wright appeared as a playable character in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. He was confirmed when a character profile image of him was accidentally uploaded onto the game's website. On October 13th 2011, Wright was officially revealed and three video trailers featuring in-game footage of the defense attorney were released.

Phoenix and Maya appear in Project X Zone 2 together as one of the solo units. Unlike most solo units in the game, Phoenix and Maya also work as a pair themselves. Phoenix and Maya summon the Steel Samurai and Pink Princess as an attack.

His Japanese given name, Ryūichi, alludes to the mythical dragon with its use of ryu (竜?). His Japanese surname, Naruhodō, references the Japanese expression naruhodo (成る程?), which equates to the English "I see". This phrase is often used in Japan to express attentiveness to the subject at hand. Series creator Shu Takumi chose the phrase to highlight Wright's inexperience; even though his name reads "I see", he may not in fact understand what is happening, something which may also be true of people using the phrase. It is also commonly used in mystery novels when investigating, a core gameplay concept of the series.[1][2]

His first English name is a reference to the mythical sacred fire bird "Phoenix", known for reviving itself from the dead. This is an allusion to Wright's almost impossible comebacks, or "turnabouts", during trials. His English surname is a pun, allowing for wordplay (such as "Right, Wright?" and "Phoenix Wrong", the name used for many Phoenix Wright parodies).[1] Early brainstorming suggestions for Phoenix's name included "Cole" and "Wilton", but "Phoenix" was chosen as a name that would "stand out". The nickname "Nick" (often used by Maya Fey, Larry Butz and Pearl Fey) was chosen based on its believability and similarity to the sound of "Phoenix".[3]

Phoenix is so far the only Ace Attorney character to appear in all the main installments in the series. While he made a cameo appearance in the spin-off games Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Gyakuten Kenji 2, he doesn't appear in the prequel games Dai Gyakuten Saiban and Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2, which stars his ancestor Ryūnosuke Naruhodō.

Phoenix Wright and Franziska von Karma were originally supposed to be playable characters in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars.[4][5] However, the idea was scrapped due to struggles with game mechanics for the former; since Phoenix doesn't move from the waist down in his original game environment, the team considered adding tires to his desk and having the entirety move as a single character but this was abandoned due to potential collision issues. The team also had problems with the Ace Attorney text bubbles; though they envisioned an attack that used his catch-phrase "Objection! (異議あり!,Igiari!?)", with the letters themselves used to attack the opponent, they found that localization would have changed the Japanese four-character phrase (in kanji) to a ten-letter word in English, unbalancing the game.

Additionally, this is what caused fans to want Phoenix to be in a fighting game. Despite it being "silly", even Shu Takumi supported it.[citation needed] As mentioned above, Phoenix would later become a playable character in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.